


twinkle twinkle little star

by fflewddur_feanorion



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Found Family, Gen, How Do I Tag, he's pretty clueless though, maglor is trying his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25985971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fflewddur_feanorion/pseuds/fflewddur_feanorion
Summary: Maglor is in over his head. He and Maedhros have just kidnapped the Peredhel twins, but they won't go to sleep and Maedhros isn't being very helpful. Well, at least he's still the greatest singer in Middle-Earth.or: Maglor writes "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
Relationships: Maedhros | Maitmo & Maglor | Makalaurë & Elrond Peredhel & Elros Tar-Minyatur
Comments: 7
Kudos: 45





	twinkle twinkle little star

They won’t sleep.  _ Why  _ won’t they sleep?”

Maglor stormed out of the tent, wild-haired and disheveled. He hadn’t slept in  _ at least  _ three days, and was ready to hit the first person who even looked at him funny. “Mae! How do I get the twins to go to bed?”

At first, Maedhros didn’t reply. He didn’t talk much these days-- not to Maglor or the twins, anyway. Maglor worried about him sometimes. His brother was extremely good at distancing himself from everyone, a trait which had only gotten worse after the Nirnaeth. Still, they had the twins to look after now, and Maglor couldn’t do this by himself.

“They’re scared,” Maedhros replied. He didn’t turn around. “They’re only children. Their home is burned to the ground, their parents are gone, and to top it all off, you’ve kidnapped them. Of course they have trouble sleeping.”

“ _ We  _ kidnapped them," Maglor corrected him.

“No. It was  _ your  _ idea. We should have left them there! You and I are already damned at least three times over-- we don’t need to drag anyone  _ else  _ to hell!” Maedhros was yelling by this point. The firelight flickered across the scars on his face, making him look even more otherworldly. 

Maglor took an involuntary step back.

Maedhros shook his head. “Sorry. It’s just . . . they’re so innocent, Kano. They don’t deserve this.”

“Does  _ anyone _ ?”

“Sing something,” Maedhros suggested. “Just a lullaby, nothing too complicated. It will help them calm down.”

Maglor nodded and turned towards their tent. The night sky was clear, and Earendil’s light shone down like a beacon. Maglor wasn’t entirely sure how the mariner had managed to get himself stuck in the sky, but at least the new star was beautiful.

_ Stars. Hmmmm . . .  _

Maglor walked into the tent, where Elrond and Elros huddled together in a pile of blankets. He couldn’t tell them apart yet. One was glaring at him, and the other . . . Maglor's breath caught in his throat. The other wasn't angry or sad. He looked  _ empty _ , like Amras had looked after the death of his twin, like Maedhros had looked after Thangorodrim. It was the look of someone who had nothing left to lose. “What do  _ you  _ want?” the angry one demanded.

Maglor knelt down in front of the twins. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have kidnapped you. I . . . I thought you would be safer with us.”

Neither one replied. 

“Would you like to hear a song?”

The twins looked at each other, then nodded slowly.

“Okay then.” Maglor looked out the open tent flap, where Earendil’s star still shone. He began to sing as softly and sweetly as he could. 

_ Twinkle, twinkle little star _

_ How I wonder what you are _

(He’d have to tell them the truth eventually. Not yet, though. The twins had lost enough already-- they deserved to have some hope.)

_ Up above the world so high, _

_ Like a diamond in the sky. _

(Well. Feanor would  _ kill  _ him if he knew that Maglor had compared the Silmarils to diamonds, but they were a similar colour and had the right number of syllables.)

_ Twinkle twinkle little star, _

_ How I wonder what you are. _

It was a silly little song, and far too repetitive, but it worked. Maglor looked down. The twins were curled up together in their pile of blankets, fast asleep.  _ Actually  _ asleep, for the first time in days.

Maybe he could make this work.

Several millennia later, Gilraen was singing little Aragorn to sleep. (Well, she was  _ trying  _ to. Aragorn, meanwhile, was doing his best to scream her ears off.) Gilraen sighed and began singing an old lullaby from Numenor. No one knew who had originally written it.

_ Twinkle, twinkle little star . . . _

Gilraen stopped singing as the door creaked open. The Lord of Rivendell stood just outside, looking very faint. "Are you alright?" she asked. 

"No. Yes. Just . . . where did you learn that song?"

"Oh, I don't know," Gilraen said. "It's a very old tune from Numenor. Someone there must have written it. Are you sure you're alright?" She had never seen Elrond look so rattled.

"I know that song," Elrond said."When I was very young, my father wrote it for me and Elros. Singing it was the only way he could get us to sleep. Later, when we were too old for lullabies, Elros and I would still ask for the song sometimes. It was . . . It was like a piece of home."

"Your father?" Gilraen asked. "Earendil?" In the back of her mind, she hoped she'd gotten the name right. Elves had extremely complicated family trees.

"No. My foster father, Maglor. It's a long story."

"You're an  _ elf _ ." Gilraen smiled. "When is anything  _ not  _ a long story?"

"Fair point."

Aragorn began fussing again. Gilraen looked down at him, mildly exasperated. "Do you mind if I finish the song? I'd prefer to get at least a little rest tonight."

"Of course." Elrond didn't move. "Can . . . can I listen?"

"Of course."Gilraen started the song over. She wasn't surprised to hear Elrond join in, his smoother and lower voice blending with hers.

"You know," Elrond said after they finished, "I think the song was meant to be about my father and his Silmaril."

"That's a lot of meaning to pack into a lullaby."

"Yes, it is. But it does seem like something Maglor would do. He loved things with deeper meanings."

"Well, at least Aragorn's asleep now," Gilraen said. "Does it really matter what the song is about? It makes him happy for a little while, and that's what counts." Damn these elves-- she'd been spending too much time around them, and now she was speaking in riddles.

"Yes," Elrond said thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose it is."

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first fic on ao3, so let me know what you think!


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